VOORHEES, N.J. — Among the things Wayne Simmonds can do without a problem is shrug his shoulders. As in, he doesn’t seem to care that Washington Capitals defenseman John Erskine flew an elbow into his face Friday night at Verizon Center.

“It’s hockey. Stuff happens. It’s not really a big deal to me,” Simmonds said with a shrug Wednesday. “It’s a hockey play. If I had thought he tried to do it intentionally, maybe I would have said something. But that’s how he plays the game. He plays it hard and unfortunately, that happened.”

“That” was a reaction on Erskine’s part, Simmonds says. “That” was also an ugly looking incident that left Simmonds concussed. Or at least that’s what he’s been told. The way he looked and felt while participating in non-contact practice drills Wednesday at the Skate Zone seemed to indicate otherwise.

Simmonds has missed two games since being diagnosed with what seems to be a mild concussion. Whether he can suit up for tonight’s game against the Florida Panthers was still a matter of conjecture. He was expecting to have more discussions about when he could be cleared for physical contact later Wednesday.

Via text message Wednesday night, however, Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren indicated there was no change in Simmonds’ situation. It isn’t known when or if he’s scheduled for another baseline test, though when asked about what symptoms he was experiencing, Simmonds said, “Nothing.

“I felt good today especially, but I really don’t know what’s going to happen,” he added. “There are baseline tests we do at the beginning of the season and they just compare stuff to that. But I think they’ve added a couple of new ones because they try to switch it up on you.”

Simmonds had his tongue firmly planted in his cheek when he said that, of course, but the hit by Erskine wasn’t so funny when it happened. Simmonds’ delayed reaction to it remains light, saying he didn’t know for sure if it was his first concussion.

“I take a lot of punches and I get hit in the head a lot,” he said. “So I can’t really say I’m pretty new to this. But I was headache-free the whole time, so I think that’s a good sign.

“I honestly couldn’t tell you if I’m going to play (tonight) or not. I think it’s up to the medical staff at this point. If I have more tests to do, I’ll do more tests and if not, we’ll just see how it goes. ... If I still have to practice a few more days I have no problem with that. But obviously, it’s a touchy thing. You don’t want to push it.”

Simmonds said he’d gotten a text message from Erskine, who was suspended for three games by NHL vice president of entertaining videos Brendan Shanahan for the elbow.

“I’m happy he did that,” Simmonds said. “Obviously, I don’t think it was intended to hurt me. I’ve watched him play. He’s a big, strong, stay-at-home D-man, and he plays physical, but I’ve never seen him intentionally try to hurt someone.

“He knew he had gotten caught (on the play),” Simmonds said. “We were going to go on a 3-on-1 the other way. Sometimes things happen in hockey. It’s a fast-paced game. You can’t be mad at anybody for it.”

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Claude Giroux said Wednesday he didn’t know he led the NHL in faceoff wins, which was a major factor in the Flyers’ hard-fought victory Tuesday over the Tampa Bay Lightning. What might be obscuring Giroux’s view of particular facets of the game is the way he’s commonly critical of his game.

“It’s been up and down,” Giroux said. “Personally, I think I can play better. But it’s a process right now. We’re getting everybody on the same system and we’re having fun doing it.”

That view from Giroux extends to the way the Flyers are playing as a team during this shortened season.

“We’ve played well,” he said. “I think we can play better still. We have a lot of things to work on. We’re just trying to battle back from our bad start.

“It’s 10 games in and we’re looking at the standings every day. It’s going to be tight until the end. We know that. One win or one loss can be (the difference between) eighth place or 14th place. It’s going to be tight until the end, so every game is going to be important.”

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Acknowledging his team’s forechecking efforts also went a long way toward beating the Lightning, Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said, “We want to skate. We want to bang in the offensive zone and keep pucks down there. While I like to see that, it needed to be improved in a lot of games from where it was. It wasn’t good enough. (Tuesday) night, it was better, but I still think there’s room to grow.”